Offaly volunteers gear up for Belarus trip

A 66-strong team of volunteers from all over the Midlands region will travel to Belarus next month to renovate a remote orphanage, which is currently home to 120 children. The group, which includes a strong contingent from Offaly, will travel as part of the Athlone Chernobyl Aid Project (ACAP), and have travelled to Belarus for a number of years now. They will head off on May 14 to 23 next to Opsa village orphanage in the Braslav area of Belarus, some six hours north of the capital Minsk close to the Latvian border, to carry out repairs to the remote facility with no hot water, showering facilities, laundry, kitchen and toilet facilities and help bring it up to modern standards.And to raise money for the trip Birr"s Brendan Beale has organised a 70s/80s disco for this Sunday night in Dooly"s Hotel. Brendnan, who has travelled to Belarus as part of ACAP for six years now explained that this annual fundraiser is always hugely successful and.'There is always great support locally and I"d like to thank Dooly"s for the use of the hotel, which they gave us free of charge and all the people who sold tickets, I gave tickets to about 20 or 30 friends and they sold them for me,' he said. He added that tickets for the night were €10 each and people can pay in on the door if they haven"t already got their tickets for the night. Mr Beale explained that he expects it will take five or six years to get the Opsa orphanage up to the standard they would like to see it at. Speaking about the upcoming trip Chairman of the Athlone Chernobyl Aid Project Martin Reilly said: 'We"ll be putting in showers, a laundry, drylining walls and rewiring the whole building and putting in new windows. There is a serious amount of work to do in just over a week.' After five trips to the Karolina orphanage over the last few years where they brought the building up to modern standards, the team decided to tackle the Opsa facility this time around because of its primitive condition and remote location, a fact that means it receives minimum state aid and help from other agencies. 'They love to see us coming. They"ve got no help from anyone. There are over 100 children living in the orphanage, many of who are mentally handicapped. We thought we might struggle with the way things are going here but we actually have more volunteers for this trip than before. There is great interest in it, each person pays their own fare and gives their time willingly,' Mr Reilly enthused. 'Conditions in the Karolina orphanage were dire when we first went over. The kids had to wash in a shed with a hose. Now, it"s a very modern building. We"re hoping to do the same with the Opsa orphanage on this trip,' he explained. 'Nobody else can help them. They get an absolute pittance from the Government,' Mr Reilly commented, adding that you could say they were in 'permanent recession', depending almost solely on outside help to improve their lot.